An analysis of China's CO_2 emission peaking target and pathways

China has set the goal for its CO2 emissions to peak around 2030, which is not only a strategic decision coordinating domestic sustainable development and global climate change mitigation but also an overarching target and a key point of action for China＇s resource conservation, environmental protection, shift in economic development patterns, and CO2 emission reduction to avoid climate change. The development stage where China maps out the CO2 emission peak target is earlier than that of the developed countries. It is a necessity that the non-fossil energy supplies be able to meet all the increased energy demand for achieving CO2 emission peaking. Given that China＇s potential GDP annual increasing rate will be more than 4%, and China＇s total energy demand will continue to increase by approximately 1.0%--1.5% annually around 2030, new and renewable energies will need to increase by 6%-8% annually to meet the desired CO2 emission peak. The share of new and renewable energies in China＇s total primary energy supply will be approximately 20% by 2030. At that time, the energy consumption elasticity will decrease to around 0.3, and the annual decrease in the rate of CO2 intensity will also be higher than 4% to ensure the sustained growth of GDE To achieve the CO2 emission peaking target and substantially promote the low-carbon deve!opment transformation, China needs to actively promote an energy production and consumption revolution, the innovation of advanced energy technologies, the reform of the energy regulatory system and pricing mechanism, and especially the construction of a national carbon emission cap and trade system.

Cropping system innovation for coping with climatic warming in China

China is becoming the largest grain producing and carbon-emitting country in the world,with a steady increase in population and economic development.A review of Chinese experiences in ensuring food self-sufficiency and reducing carbon emission in the agricultural sector can provide a valuable reference for similar countries and regions.According to a comprehensive review of previous publications and recent field observations,China has experienced on average a larger and faster climatic warming trend than the global trend,and there are large uncertainties in precipitation change,which shows a non-significantly increasing trend.Existing evidence shows that the effects of climatic warming on major staple crop production in China could be markedly negative or positive,depending on the specific cropping region,season,and crop.However,historical data analysis and field warming experiments have shown that moderate warming,of less than2.0 °C,could benefit crop production in China overall.During the most recent warming decades,China has made successful adaptations in cropping systems,such as new cultivar breeding,cropping region adjustment,and cropping practice optimization,to exploit the positive rather than to avoid the negative effects of climatic warming on crop growth.All of these successful adaptations have greatly increased crop yield,leading to higher resource use efficiency as well as greatly increased soil organic carbon content with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.Under the warming climate,China has not only achieved great successes in crop production but also realized a large advance in greenhouse gas emission mitigation.Chinese experiences in cropping system innovation for coping with climatic warming demonstrate that food security and climatic warming mitigation can be synergized through policy,knowledge,and technological innovation.With the increasingly critical status of food security and climatic warming,further efforts should be invested in new agricultural policy,knowledge and technology creation,and popularization of climate-smart agriculture,and more financial investments should be made in field infrastructure development to increase cropping system resilience in China.